I'm building a diskless (and cd-rom less) machine which I intend to run Damn Small Linux on (booted over network). For this I need to extract the root image and modify it a bit to fit my needs. I've mounted the iso and extracted the KNOPPIX file, however getting any further from there kinda dassles me :-/ (the KNOPPIX file seems to be some strange cross of shell script and crypto loop file).

I know i could burn DSL to cd, boot it, and extract the image from there on another box (as described in the KNOPPIX remaster docs) . However i'm trying avoid this (sice I dont really need to anything afterwards, and burning a new CD for each release seems a bit stupid, since I dont plan to use it).

Let's see if I get your question: You want to 'extract' the /KNOPPIX compressed file and run it as it is? then follow Knoppix howto for "poor man's hd install"-or how to run knoppix from hd without install.